From a single shop in the Madrona neighborhood, Cupcake Royale has grown to seven locations and 110 employees. Owner and EO members Jody Hall expects sales to reach $6 million this year, about double what they were in 2008. Her various locations sell at least one million cupcakes a year, along with their own brand of ice cream.

New ways of enabling entrepreneurs to invest their 401(k)s are freeing up assets and fueling Bellevue’s Guidant Financial to new heights.

"Instead of investing in someone else, we invested in ourselves. That was pretty empowering. We controlled our destiny instead of some mutual fund or company our retirement was previously invested in."